Model comparison

Gemma 3 12B vs Qwen3 8B

Qwen3 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.7 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 4.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 8B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 11, 2026. 10 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 12B

Google

32.1

Rank #262 Confirmed

Qwen3 8B

Alibaba (Qwen)

33.7

Rank #238 Confirmed

Summary

They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 8B in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3 8B leads 34.9 to 22.3.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 56.1% for Qwen3 8B.
Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.18 / $0.70 for Qwen3 8B.

Side by side

Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3 8B specifications
	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
Provider	Google	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	32.1	33.7
Released	2025-03-12	2025-04
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	131K	131K
Max output	8K	8K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.05	$0.18
Output $ / M tokens	$0.15	$0.70
Results tracked	24	11

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3 8B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 31.7 (#280), Qwen3 8B: 34.0 (#248)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
SciCode	17.4%	22.6%
LMArena Coding	1281	—

Agentic & Tool Use Qwen3 8B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 25.5 (#108), Qwen3 8B: 30.2 (#78)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	30.4%	42.6%

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemma 3 12B: 15.7 (#313), Qwen3 8B: 16.6 (#303)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
CritPt	0%	0%
Chess Puzzles	0%	5%
DTBench	48.8%	59.7%
LMCA	4.5%	8.8%
Epoch Capabilities Index	123.5	136.17
LMArena Hard Prompts	1309	—

Math Qwen3 8B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 22.3 (#279), Qwen3 8B: 34.9 (#191)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	16.7%	56.1%
LMArena Math	1307	—

Knowledge Qwen3 8B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#257), Qwen3 8B: 36.1 (#173)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
GPQA Diamond	39.5%	56.8%
Vectara Hallucination Rate	4.4%	4.8%
LMArena Expert	1248	—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: —, Qwen3 8B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
MindCube	46.7%	—

Multilingual Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 45.7 (#165), Qwen3 8B: —

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
LMArena Non-English	1318	—
LMArena German	1370	—
LMArena Russian	1335	—

Instruction Following Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 68.6 (#186), Qwen3 8B: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
LMArena Instruction Following	1299	—

Long Context Gemma 3 12B leads

Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#162), Qwen3 8B: 37.9 (#210)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
Fiction.LiveBench	—	62.1%
LMArena Longer Query	1317	—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Gemma 3 12B: 47.5 (#209), Qwen3 8B: —

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 3 12B	Qwen3 8B
LMArena Text	1334	—
LMArena Creative Writing	1331	—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1126	—
LMArena Multi-Turn	1334	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 12B better than Qwen3 8B?

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3 8B?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3 8B lists at $0.18 and $0.70.

Is Gemma 3 12B or Qwen3 8B better for coding?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 34.0 versus 31.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 131K tokens.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and Qwen3 8B share?

10 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 8B has 11.